A civil-rights law center filed suit yesterday against a public library in Tampa, Fla., for allegedly denying it use of a community meeting room to host a discussion of Christian heritage.

The suit, filed in federal court by lawyers for Liberty Counsel, said officials of the Dunedin Public Library twice denied the legal group use of its meeting room "to conduct meetings open to the public to discuss America's Christian heritage." The Orlando-based Liberty Counsel seeks to have the policy ruled unconstitutional.

According to a statement released by the group, the library's policy regarding the community meeting room forbids "meetings/programs of a political, religious or of a formal social nature. ‚Ä¶"

The group says Rebecca Townsend first attempted to reserve the room on its behalf for the heritage discussion Aug. 28, 2002, but was rebuffed in a Sept. 5 letter from the library's meeting room...